Warnings: bit of anxiety, but thats it

Summary: a next step

set by the time patton is 2 months old

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Virgil had been up since five in the morning, which definitely wasn't by choice, but if his son was cranky then it was his problem. Now, a few hours later he was much less fussy, the two month old had probably just been a bit constipated, if his diapers had been anything to go by.

Now it was just slightly past nine, which was about when Virgil began to feel that he could deal with eating food. He was rarely hungry in the mornings, but by now two toasts with honey and a cup of coffee while watching a few episodes of Steven Universe with Patton sounded perfect.

He dripped honey onto his toasts and filled his cup with coffee, adding several teaspoons of sugar to make it drinkable. He didn't actually particularly like coffee, he preferred tea, but he needed the energy and would stand the bitter taste for that kick.

At least when he was sure enough that he would have a calm day as the caffeine could be a bitch when added together with his anxiety, but today his only plan was to sit at home with his son and do nothing. He had gotten the grocery shopping done yesterday, and the day before that he had done the laundry and even cleaned his apartment up a bit.

There was nothing to do except relax and be a dad and maybe take a nap later in the day if Patton decided to sleep for a longer period of time than he had so far this day. Damn, Virgil couldn't wait until a few more months when his son was going to start sleeping through the night.

If he was lucky he would start getting full nights of sleep again around his son turning four months, though it was likely going to take longer. But it was definitely the milestone he was looking forward to the most.

Of course, there were a lot of milestones that were pretty cool, by now Patton could raise his head for a short moment when lying on his stomach, and sometimes he made some cooing baby noises instead of crying, which was much more adorable, Virgil had to admit.

He stepped back into the living room with his breakfast, setting it down on the table before turning back to the kitchen to grab Patton from his bouncy chair. He still didn't like leaving him alone for even a moment, but he only had so many hands.

"Here we go, Pat." He said, using the cute nickname that had been Romans first reaction once he told the two of them about the name that he had chosen. He did end up trying some other names out too before settling for one, but Patton just felt right.

He had been nervous to tell Roman and Logan about the name he had chosen for his son, even if they already knew about the names he was trying, because what if they thought his name suggestions were stupid? But, no, the only reaction had been Roman immediately coming up with a nickname and Logan giving him a nod and giving Patton a proper greeting.

That was about a month ago and he was feeling pretty confident with his decision by now. He was actually generally a bit more confident about the whole 'be a dad' thing by now. Of course he was still terrified all of the time, but not as petrifyingly as those first weeks.

He got a bit more sleep nowadays, which helped a whole lot because he felt a bit more like a person and being less sleep deprived had made his thoughts a bit more rational.

He laid Patton down on his stomach on the baby play mat, seating himself on the floor by his son and reaching for one of his toasts. The baby moved his head to the side, looking towards him.

Apparently 'tummy time', as it was called, was pretty important for babies to develop. Virgil had read that it helped babies make neck and shoulder muscles stronger, which would be needed for him to learn how to sit and crawl and walk.

And he had also read something about it keeping babies from getting flat spots on the back of their heads, which was one of all these weird baby things that he had had no idea about but which sounded scary.

Patton let out an I'm-about-to-cry noise and Virgil carefully moved him to lie on his back instead. He looked around to see if he had a pacifier lying around somewhere nearby, but the only one he could spot was one that was lying on the floor under the couch, which at least solved the mystery of the pacifier he had lost without a trace a few days ago.

He reached for Patton's teddy bear instead, giving it to him and hoping that it would be comforting enough.

Virgil reached for the remote and turned his tv on, starting the Steven Universe episode that he was on as he ate his toast. His therapist had been right to suggest a rewatch, it was nice to have a show to sit down and watch a bunch of episodes of now and then. He was nearing the end of it, though, but Roman had been talking about some cartoon that he liked, something about princesses and magic and several queer characters.

"Oh, this is a good episode." He told his son, giving his forehead a gentle poke and watching him kick his legs and stare up at him.

He watched three episodes, then checked his phone and saw that he had a text from Roman asking if he and Logan could come over. He sent a yes back immediately, definitely excited by the idea of improving his day by getting to spend some time with his boyfriends.

He hadn't seen them in over a week, all of them busy with work and stuff, and his plans to take a nap sounded even better knowing that there would be people around to cuddle.

He put his phone away and set his half empty cup of coffee onto the floor before lifting Patton up into his arms and kissing his forehead.

"We're gonna get some love and attention within an hour." He told him happily, then paused. "Actually, you've got a pretty constant flow of love and attention coming your way... But yay for me."

He shook his head at himself, then pressed another kiss to his son's head before turning his attention back to the screen where Steven was trying to figure out why people were disappearing from Beach City.

He stayed on the floor with Patton, watching the cartoon until he heard a knock on his door. Virgil smiled to himself, carefully leaving his now sleeping son on the play mat. It felt like the safest way to keep him from waking up.

He walked to the front door and opened it, finding Logan waiting outside.

"Verge," Logan smiled, reaching a hand towards him. Virgil took it, soon being pulled towards him and a kiss was pressed to his cheek, "Roman is on his way up."

"Alright." Virgil said, taking a step back and allowing Logan to come in and take his shoes and jacket off.

"You guys want some tea?" He wondered, already turning to go to the kitchen because he knew the answer was yes.

"Please, and I'm sure Roman would like a cup too. Actually, you can probably make a whole kettle." Logan called after him.

"Course." Virgil made a kettle of tea, hearing Logan entering the living room, which was good since it was where Patton was sleeping and Virgil was still very nervous about leaving him alone. Then he heard his front door open again, and the unmistakable noise of Roman entering.

A second later he stuck his head into the kitchen, then walked right in still wearing shoes and his jacket to give Virgil a kiss, because Roman always claimed the first thing he had to do when entering his boyfriends homes was to get a kiss from said boyfriends.

Roman called it manners. Virgil was pretty sure it was just Roman who could never get enough kisses, but it was kind of cute and he didn't want him to stop so he wasn't going to tease Roman about it.

"Hey, I'm making tea." Virgil said, Roman looking over his shoulder at the kind of tea that Virgil had chosen.

"Oh, my favorite!" Roman said, giving Virgil a second enthusiastic kiss before going back into Virgil's hall and taking his shoes off.

Virgil carried three cups of tea into the living room soon enough, putting them down on his coffee table and glancing towards Logan who had straightened up as soon as Virgil had entered the room, as if to pretend he hadn't sat bent over Patton's play mat, telling the sleeping baby hello. Roman was lying slung across almost the entire sofa, as he usually was.

"So, you guys wanna watch something? Or just sit and drink tea and do nothing? Or did you guys have anything in mind?" He asked, lifting Roman's feet up to give himself room on the couch. Of course Roman put his feet in his lap as soon as Virgil was sitting.

"Actually, there is something we would like to talk to you about." Logan said, his words making Virgil's entire body go cold with anxiety dizzyingly quick. Oh, the coffee had been a bad idea.

"Nothing bad! We're not breaking up with you or anything, promise." Roman rushed to assure him, seeming to have noticed somehow how drastically Virgil's mood had changed.

"Right, um, go on." Virgil said, clearing his throat in an attempt to stifle the shake in his voice, and he removed his hands from where he had rested them on Roman's ankles, instead shoving them into his pockets in an attempt to hide how just that short moment of anxiety filled dread had made them tremble.

"Actually, it's probably more of the opposite." Roman said with a wink. Virgil looked between the two of them, having no idea what they were on about and definitely not trusting himself to take any guesses.

"We were actually wondering if moving in together is something that you would want?" Logan said and Virgil blinked, stopping his fidgeting with the old receipt he had found in his pocket.

"What?" He said, which was most likely not the response that the two of them had hoped for, but it was the only word that popped up in Virgil's head. That really hadn't been what he thought they would say.

"Yeah, Logan and I actually talked about it a while ago, but the whole Patton thing kind of made us put a pause on that thought since you have been having enough on your mind already lately, but... We've been together for almost nine months, it seems like a pretty natural next step in our relationship, doesn't it?" Roman said, pulling Virgil's hand out of his pocket to be able to entwine their fingers.

"You want to move in with me?" Virgil asked, his brain not entirely following what they were saying.

"Yes." Logan said. "Do you want to move in with us?"

"I- yeah, course I do." Virgil said, voice now unsteady for an entirely different reason. His words had Logan visibly relax and Roman threw himself over him to hug Virgil tightly.

"Awesome! So, I've been thinking about it, and looking around online daydreaming a bit, and don't you think it would be nice to get a house together?" He said excitedly, sitting back down and looking like he might actually queal.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Probably more space, and could have a garden that Patton can play in when he's older." Virgil said, too easily painting a picture of the house they might live in together.

"If our future house doesn't have a proper porch at the back of the house I'm building one myself." Roman declared, which seemed to be quite the promise to live up to.

"We could grow vegetables in the garden." Logan said, nodding along.

"Patton could get his own room." Roman suggested.

"And we could have a room that's an office for when you're working from home." He added, nudging Virgil.

"I've always wanted to grow my own vegetables." Logan said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and Virgil could see him typing 'tomatoes' into the search bar of google.

"No matter how busy we are with work and life we will still see each other every day." Roman said, bouncing slightly where he sat, unable to contain his elation. "Can't wait to get home from work and you three will be there and I'll get to cuddle you both every evening and wake up with you every morning."

"We can make breakfast together in the mornings, and sit in the garden on sunny days, and we can solve the big Sunday crosswords together." Logan added, seeming infinitely satisfied with the prospect of the future that they were discussing, putting his phone away again.

"All that does sound pretty good." Virgil agreed with a smile that refused to go away.

"It really does! Oh, we have to start looking at houses, it will be so much fun." Roman said. "Just think, our dream house might be out there!"

"I got my laptop in my bedroom, could you get it for me?" Virgil wondered and Roman immediately bounced up from the couch and disappeared into his bedroom. Virgil leaned back, intentionally ending up leaning against Logan who somewhat hesitantly took his hand.

Virgil looked up at him, immediately being able to tell that there was something he wanted to say.

"What?" He wondered, watching as Logan seemed to think over his words.

"I know that you worry that this... new development in your life will make us leave you, but I need you to know that we have no such plans. We love you, we want to be with you." He said. Virgil ducked his head slightly.

"I love you too." He mumbled, his words earning him a kiss to the top of his head, which definitely didn't make his face less pink.

"You will not scare me off so easily, I am very happy in this relationship and I intend to spend the rest of my life with the both of you." He told Virgil who squeezed his hand and rested his head on his chest. That was such a sappy statement that Virgil had no idea how he was supposed to respond.

"Wow, Lo, that's unusually romantic of you." Roman said with a grin that was audible in his voice as he walked back into the living room. He sat back down next to Virgil who looked towards him and saw that he had managed to find his laptop.

"So, you guys have discussed the whole 'moving in' thing for a while, huh?" Virgil said, watching Roman type the password in and then quickly searching for places to look at houses.

"Yeah. Didn't mean to do that without you, but you know how I get when I'm sleepy. The topic came up during one of those midnight conversations, you know?" Roman said, pausing his googling. None of that surprised Vigril in the least.

Roman had a habit of getting all lovey-dovey and sappy late at night, going on rambles about everything he loved about them or the dates he would like to take them on or any other subjects like that.

"We would have asked sooner but we, or, well, I was nervous about it, Roman has been nothing but excited, and then, as I said, we postponed the question as you have been rather stressed since Patton joined us." Logan said. Roman pushed the laptop halfway into Virgil's lap.

"But as long as you're sure that you really want to move in with us, then nothing would make me happier." Logan added, and it was very sweet of him to worry that Virgil might just be going along with what they wanted to make them happy, but the idea to live with them truly just made him happy.

"I'm sure. If anything I'm wondering if the two of you have thought this through properly. Moving in together will mean living full time with a baby. And then a toddler and then a child and then a teenager. I mean, there's a few months left until he'll start sleeping through the night. And I've heard that toddlers throw a lot of tantrums and stuff, you know?" Virgil said.

He didn't want the four of them to move in together and then have his boyfriends regretting it.

"Believe it or not, Virgil, we have considered the fact that living with you includes living with your son." Logan said, sounding just a little amused.

"Well... just checking."

Patton gave a cry from his play mat, clearly unhappy with where he had woken up. Roman pushed the laptop entirely into Virgil's lap and got up before Virgil had the chance to. He watched as Roman scooped the baby up in his arms, cooing at him and carrying him over to the couch before sitting again.

"I can take him, if you'd like." Virgil offered, ready to move the laptop onto Logan's lap instead.

"Nah, I'm good. He just seems to want to be held for a bit." Roman said, looking very cute as he sat there smiling at the, now calm, baby.

"Alright then, let's look at some houses." Virgil said, turning back to his laptop.

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Written: 2nd, 3rd & 4th June 2022
Published: 4th June 2022
Words: 2945

Love u guys, hope ur having a good day